Inevitable
by Spawn of Nerdom
Summary: Bucky needs to heal, and there are only a handful of people who can help him do that. But what if he ends up falling for her?


**Disclaimer: **I do not own or claim Captain America. I do own my OC's, Alex and Axel

**Author's Note: **This story was inspired by Clockwork's Apprentice, who did her own one-shot with her OC, Gear. It waa super adorable and I highly recommend reading it if you haven't already.

**Inevitable:**

**Third Person:**

"What took you so long?" Steve asked as the twins walked through the door. He was asking mainly because they said that they would be at Avengers HQ three hours ago. Now they were here, beaten, bloody, and Alex's prosthetic arm was missing. They sighed and shifted their weight from side to side.

"Nothing much," Axel said, looking down.

"Uh...Just helping bring down a few building and super villains at the same time..." Alex said, rubbing the back of her neck and looking at Axel. He nodded. Cap sighed.

Well, he's waiting for you. I went in to see him earlier and told him." Alex frowned.

"Damn it, I wanted it to be a surprise. Oh well. Let's go, I've been waiting months for this."

James 'Bucky' Barnes looked up as Steve came in with two others behind him. One of them was a girl, and she had red-orange fur and dirty blonde hair in a ponytail, clashing with her cougar tail and her midnight blue wings, who, unlike Axel, who had gun metal black wings with a lions tail. She had her bangs covering her left eye, and the other was a vibrant green, like fresh grass. She wore a torn up tank top and black cargo jeans with combat boots, white fingerless gloves, and a black tank top that had the white half of the Ying-Yang symbol. Her brother, Axel, had on Black cargo jeans, a white shirt that made all of his muscles pop out a little bit. On his chest was the other half to the girl's symbol, and he had on black fingerless gloves. His hair was the same clolor as his sister's, but it was put in a fohawk instead. He gave a little wave and sat down in the chair next to him without a word. His sister took the floor in front of them.

"How's it going?" She asked. Bucky just stared at them, then Steve, who nodded and left the room, then back at the twins. He scooted away a little bit. They didn't flinch at this. Instead they gave sheepish smiles.

"Sorry about that, we totally forgot," the boy said as he took four knives out of his boots. The girl did the same, and instead of placing them to the side, they threw then at the dart board.

"Anyway, I'm Alex, the prettier, one armed twin, and that's Axel, the more sensitive one."

Axel glared slightly before chuckling. What she said wasn't wrong. Well, except for the part about her being prettier. If anything he was the sexier twin.

"Do you have a name?" She asked, sitting cross legged. He nodded, and scooted away ever so slightly, but he didn't say anything about him. Instead he asked,

"Why are you here?"

The twins shared a look and shrugged.

"Steve said because we have a fucked up past like you we would be able to relate better," Alex said. His eyes widened, and she slapped her forehead.

"Wow, I totally just forgot you were from the forties and that word was a taboo. Sorry."

"It's okay...Just...Unexpected," He said quietly. But, thanks to their advanced hearing, they were able to hear him perfectly fine. Alex smiled softly at him.

"So, what do you like to do?" She asked. James looked at her confused for a moment before shrugging. They shrugged as well.

"Okay, well, do you remember anything you do like?" Axel said. Bucky nodded.

"I like carnivals..."

"Have you ever been to one?"

He nodded.

"Yeah...With Steve. I had a girl on my arm and we were watching this man make a car fly...It was before I found Steve trying to sign up for the army again..."

"Oh, I read about that. The man was Howard Stark, who is Tony's dad. After that the idea of flying cars was kind of dumped for a few years until S.H.I.E.L.D." Alex explained. Bucky nodded.

"My name...It's James...But people call me Bucky..." He said. The twins smiled at him.

"We already know that, we just thought it would be polite t ask."

Bucky felt the corners of his mouth twitch up ever so slightly. They seemed like nice kids who genuinely wanted to help him. He just didn't know if he should put his full faith in them just yet, though.

"Well, I'm gonna turn in early," Axel said as he stood up and stretched. he held out his hand for Bucky to shake, which he did. "It was an honor meeting you."

"Why are you going to bed so early?" Alex asked.

"I'm leaving with Reed tomorrow, remember," He replied. She scoffed.

"Him and you and those peace treaties. Have fun and take pictures."

"Will do."

With that he left the room, leaving Alex and Bucky alone. Alex clapped her hand on her leg.

"So, you hungry? Because according to Steve, you haven't eaten in a while. That's not a good thing."

"I know...I just haven't had that much of an appetite. It's hard for me to eat sometimes."

Alex smiled and stood, placing a hand on his fake shoulder.

"I know that feeling. After my students were blown up I didn't eat for a week. Hell, I didn't even leave my room, and I couldn't sleep. So, yeah. Now, are you a vegan or do you like meat?"

"Uh...The second one?"

She nodded and left for the kitchen that had been provided. He followed her, watching her smooth movements as she took the meat and tofu and put it int he pan that was on an open burner.

"You know," She said, not looking at him, "In my personal experience I've learned that physically recovering can also help you mentally recover."

"How?"

"Well, when you feel good on the outside, you feel kinda good on the inside, and forget about the bad stuff, therefore getting rid of a tiny bit of pain. And in our case, it's just another step you getting your back to your old self."

Bucky noticed how she said 'our' instead of just him.

"Okay?" She asked. He nodded.

"Okay."

* * *

The next day Alex showed up before Bucky was awake so she could make breakfast. He needed a friend, and she was willing to fit that bill. She was convinced she was one of the only ones who could. But before she started making the pancakes, however, she plugged in a radio on the nightstand next to his bed and turned it all the way up and paused it, so it wouldn't play just yet. She would let him sleep for a few more minutes. At least until she was done with the pancakes.

So Alex ventured off into the kitchen with her ear buds in, focusing on balancing the bowl on what little counter space there was and started stirring, swingng her hips and tail slightly as _Renagade _by Styx played. She made a mental note to introduce Bucky to more music. And movies. He needed movies as well.

It didn't take long, considering how many pancakes she made. It certainly did pay to have a high metabolism (which is also why she could never get drunk or high and stuff). She wiped her hand on her pants and poked her head n Bucky's room, finding tha he was still asleep. She smirked and pressed play on the remote to the radio. He sprang out of bed so fast she thought he gave himself whiplash. She chuckled and got Bucky's attention as he glared at the radio, trying to figure out how to turn it off.

"Relax, dude," she said as she paused the music, "It's just Bon Jovi."

"Who?"

"A singer. Now come on, I made pancakes. And afterwards you're gonna get a shower."

"I don't have any spare clothes."

"I bought some last night, along with what I'm wearing."

"Did you get any sleep?" He asked. She shook her head.

"I'm not really big on sleep. I can never get comfortable enough and I get a lot of nightmares. I also get bored really easily, and had nothing else to do."

"I know that feeling," he said as dug into his food. "These are good."

"Thanks. Usually Axel makes breakfast so this is kinda new to me."

Bucky nodded and took another bite, savoring the flavor as he watched Alex pick up her mess, one of her ear buds still in her elf-like ear.

"What are you listening to?" He questioned. He noticed how she turned her entire head to glance at him instead of just tilting it a little to her left. She smiled at him, and without saying anything, she took the headphones out of her MP3 and let the music blare _Dust in the Wind, _by Kansas. They sat in silence as the song played on, Alex humming to it every now and then. Bucky smiled a little bit, but she never saw.

* * *

A week had gone by, and Axel still wasn't back, but Alex did get her arm repaired and re-attached to her shoulder. She woke Bucky up the same exact way, every morning, but with a different song. She was surprised he hadn't broken the damned thing.

When the music blared he woke up again, only to find Alex sitting on his couch and reading a book, the remote still pointed at the radio. Next to her were three large stacks of games, movies, and books. He sighed, and let his tense muscles relax. He has gotten used to her presence in the morning.

Bucky climbed out of bed and sat on the provided couch next to her, looking over her shoulder to see what she was reading before she placed her bookmark in and snapped the book shut. She handed it to him.

_"Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix?" _he asked. She nodded.

"Yeah, it's the fifth one in the series. I brought my entire collection of that, _Lord of the Rings, Ender's Game, _and a few others. These are just a bunch of board games and stuff," She said, pointing to the second stack, "And these are some movies and video games. Pick your poison."

He rubbed the back of his head with his metal arm and picked up a board game called _Trouble. _Alex grinned.

"Good choice. Prepare to get your sexy ass handed to you on a silver platter."

* * *

Steve and the other Avengers at the tower watched through the cameras as Bucky watched _Transformers _while Alex slept with her head on his lap, and her face towards the back of the couch so her wings wouldn't get stuck.

"All in favor for betting on them say 'I,'" Tony said, raising his hand. Everyone except Cap raised their hand and said 'I.' Tony nudged him, but Steve kept his eyes on the monitor as Alex's face scrunched up and she started cuddling with Bucky's fake arm, making him lean down a little bit more. Steve smiled as Bucky gladly let her as her face snuggled closer into his stomach. Tony clapped a hand on Steve's shoulder.

"Ah, come on, Steve. You know he's probably the only one she can be with. It only took them a couple of days for them to warm up to each other. That was way faster than her with any of us. It took months."

"I know, I just-"

"-You said 'I!' He's on the bet, everybody!"

Steve sighed and gave Tony a pointed look. He just shrugged and started watching the screen again.

* * *

A few days after that, Bucky woke up to the radio playing _Eye of the Tiger. _He expected to see Alex with her remote again, but instead, the remote was on the nightstand next to the radio. He scratched his head in confusion with his metal arm. He glanced at it, only to find a magnet stuck to his arm, with a note. He took it off and read it.

_Hey, Buck, sorry if I'm not there when you wake up like usual, I'm outside working on the lawn. But hey, you woke up with style! Anyway, feel free to join me. I know it can get pretty boring just lying around all day. _

_-Alex_

Bucky couldn't help but smile as he got dressed in a black T-Shirt and a pair of jeans before heading out to greet her.

"Hi there."

Bucky turned around, instantly alert. It was a black haired man with a blie button down shirt and a pair of brownish pants.

"We haven't officially met. I'm Bruce Banner," he said, sticking out his hand. "Alex asked me if I could come and get you. She said she wanted to show you something."

At Bucky's slightly confused face Bfuce chuckled, wanting to make the situation as less awkward as possible.

"Don't ask me what, I'm just the escort," he said with a small smile. Bucky nodded, but didn't say anything as they made their way outside. Bruce led him around the mansion and into the back yard, where Alex was waiting in a big white gazebo that had a table and two chairs. She was reading.

"I'll just leave you two alone," Bruce said as he backed away slowly before going back into the house.

"Did you do all of this?" He asked as he sat down. Alex cloased her book and nodded.

"Yup. Figured you would get tired of the white walls. There isn't really any...Atmosphere in there. I know it can get pretty suffocating pretty fast."

"How?"

She shrugged.

"Shit happened. Anyway, we're going to have a nice breakfast in the great polluted outdoors and just talk. I wanna know the real you, and if you have any questions about me and my origin story, I will most likely gladly tell you. So," she leaned forward slightly before taking a bite of her food, "What do you remember?"

Bucky's hand started to sweat slightly. He remembered more than he wanted to. They sat there in silence for a few minutes. That's another thing he noticed about her. She was patient, and would always wait for an answer or reaction, no matter how long it took.

"I...I remember the experiments...And the training..."

"Would you wanna tell me how that made you feel? Your reactions, how well you mentally did."

Bucky sighed again as he looked down at his slightly shaking hands. Then he looked at Alex, who was giving him a soft look, waiting patiently as usual. She knew when and when not to push.

"I...I remember killing all of those people..."

Alex pursed her lips and nodded.

"Well, we all have skeletons in our closets, so don't beat yourself up about it. Besides, you were the weapon. The only people who were bad were the people who turned you, made you into the Winter Soldier. But let me tell you something, Buck. That man no longer exists. There is only good now, and that's the person I've been dying to spend time with every day."

"You've...Killed people?" He asked. Her eyes turned hard for a split second before turning back to her familiar soft face. She nodded.

"...Yeah. I uh, I used to work at this dojo. This is when I first met them, and they wantwd me to be as discreet as possible, and...When I was handing out their belts there was this...Explosion. Most of them died, and the ones that didn't are...Joey lost the ability to ise his legs and one of them is still in a coma. I'm not aloud to see either of them because of a restraining order. And that's also how I lost my arm."

"That's aweful. But how did you be discreet...You know..."

"Looking like this?" She chuckled. She pointed to her nacklace, which was the same as her logo.

"I made it myself. It makes me look like a normal person, so I can go and walk around among other people." _And pretend I'm not a monster, _she thought to herself.

Bucky nodded slowly and took a sip of his orange juice.

"What did you do before the Avengers?" he asked. She nearly choked on her tofu eggs.

"What?"

"What did you do before you met the Avengers?" He repeated. He wanted to know more about her. He wanted to know what she liked and disliked, and loved and hated. When she talked about stuff she did like he loved the way the eye he could see seemed to spark with life as she got a huge smile on her face. Her past couldn't possibly be as screwed up as his. She sighed and rubbed the back of her neck.

"When I was ten I was kidnapped by a skrull and had all of this stuff injected into my blood, which makes me look like this. I don't remember anything before Ringleader. She did things...Aweful things to us. She killed my kids and took away my ability to cry and stuffed us in the Box and practically murdered us every day because she wanted us to kill her biggest obstacle."

"Wait...Back up a bit. You had kids? And what's the Box?"

"They weren't my actual kids, I just called then that because I taught them but I got to attached and I refused to kill them so they were slowly tortured and killed. And the Box? Psychological torture room that deprives all of your senses."

"...Meaning?"

"No sound, sight, feel, hearing, or even tasting, and when you come back out all of your senses are on hyperdrive. And it's very painful. Extremely for us folks with super-senses."

"Sounds painful. So what do you do for fun?"

"Why, James, are you trying to change an important subject?"

"Yeah. It's something neither of us want or need, and I don't like seeing you when you're not happy."

At Alex's slightly surprised expression he blushed a little bit.

"I mean, like, since you're my friend and stuff..."

Alex smiled and pulled on his hand.

"I don't usually do a lot of fun things, but we can go to the park."

* * *

She showed him all around the new New York, and Brooklyn, and Manhattan. They both had a good time. Especially Bucky when he went inside the grocery store, looking at all of the new foods, such as the marshmallows and Nutella, and portable bags of chips. She found it hilarious when he stood there in awe at the prices.

Thankfully, her necklace was on, so she looked normal. She had black hair in the same style, jeans, and a blue tight shirt that hugged her hips, along with just a regular pair of tennis shoes. Her metal arm was camouflaged as well.

"This is amazing," Bucky muttered as he fingered the price tag. "It's only 4.99? How is that even possible?"

"It's called the shitty government we have today. Now come on, we can come back to the grocery store tomorrow, okay?"

Bucky kind of pouted for a second before nodding and following Alex out the door. It was getting sort of ark out, so there wasn't as many people roaming the streets, which gave them plenty of room to dance when he pulled her aside in front of an old man with a guitar. She smiled sheepishly as she clumsily tried to dance with him. He laughed, and it was music to her ears. She had never heard someone so damaged have such a full, hearty laugh. She smiled.

"I need to teach you how to dance. No wonder you don't do a lot of fun things," He said playfully. She stuck out her tongue, and twirled as he pulled her closer to him, just rocking back and forth to the music as the old man sang.

Alex would have been surprised by this, but she was enjoying the moment, and him. He was so warm, and his strong arms pulled her close, and she felt safe in them, like nothing bad could ever touch her. And when the song ended, they didn't part. They just kept rocking slightly.

"Alex," He said. She looked up at him as he pulled away slightly. "I...I really like you."

This time Alex was stunned. She liked him too, but she never expected him to like her back. She had been rejected by humanity itself, and only the Avengers accepted her, but she had a gut feeling it was because they were afraid of her. But not Bucky. he loved her for who she was. her taste in musice and her lack of dancing skills and flesh limbs and her habit of being extremely blunt sometimes.

Before her thought train could go on overdrive, he pressed his lips against hers, his tongue exploring her mouth until there was no more to explore, grazing her fangs, and just wanting more. His favorite part was the fact that she was kissing him with equal force, which meant that she like liked him just as much. When they pulled apart, it was for air.

"I...I like you too," She said. His mouth broke into a grin as he took her hand, and they walked back to HQ.

"Just wait till Steve hears about this," He said with a small chuckle.

"I can't wait."

* * *

When they got back home the Avengers, Hill, and Fury were waiting for them. Fury looked pissed, but behind him Bucky and Alex could see Clint giving Bruce some cash and Tony and Steve giving the two a thumbs up.

"Where have you been?" Fury demanded. Alex waved him off and walked into the living room, plopping herself on the couch.

"Relax, we were just having some fun. It's better than being cooped up here all day."

"That's not what you were asked to do."

Alex glared at Fury and stood back up, not minding the fact that Hill was reaching for her gun as she got in his face.

"I was asked to help James, and that's exactly what I've been doing. So what if we start kissing and feeling emotions and stuff? He's getting better, he's happy. He needs more tan this life," She said, gesturing around the room.

"We're going to taking him back to-"

"-Only if he wants to go with you, and if he doesn't, then over my dead body."

"That can be arranged."

"Bring it on."

Before the two could start clawing each other's eyes out, Steve and Bruce stepped in between them and pushed them away from each other.

"Listen," Steve said, "Why don't we ask Bucky what he wants to do. If he wants to go with Fury, we will let him. If he decides to stay, let him. It's his choice, not ours."

They all turned their heads towards Bucky, who shifted his weight from his left to his right, eyes going downcast for a second before looking Fury in the eye.

"I like it here, and I know what you guys do. I don't want to be a weapon anymore."

Without saying anything else he reached for Alex's hand and gripped it tightly. There was no way he was letting her go so easily.

"He's made his decision, so get the hell out," Alex said, standing up a bit straighter amd tightening jer muscles so they looked a little bigger. Fury's eye bored into her, but she didn't back down. She had faced way worse than a one-eyed troll. When she didn't break, he motioned for Hill and they lef. She let out a sigh the second he was gone.

"And people wonder why I'm not a people person," she said as she sat donw on the couch again. Bucky sat down next to her, wrapping his arm around her shoulders.

"Can anyome tell me why there's an angry one-eyed troll amd his little Robin storming out?"

They all swivelled their heads to the door to see Axel and Johnny storm, who waved and flew off.

"Because he was being a dick and we told him what's up," Alex replied smoothly. Stark laughed at the nicknames.

"Makes sense. How long was I gone this time?"

"Long enough for James and I to get hooked up."

"Congrats."

"How'd the treaty go?"

"Success," he tossed her a camera. "Now if you don't mind, I'm gonna go sleep. The time is so screwed up in that dimension. Nice to see you again, Buck."

With that, he was gone.

"He seems chill," Stark said. Alex smirked.

"He usually is. He's also one hell of a cook so I'm not gonna be making breakfast again."

"Noted."

* * *

It took an extremely long time, but they finally did end up getting engaged. James 'Bucky' Barnes noticed a lot of chamges throughout that time.

He noticed how she slept a little more, and didn't get as many nightmares. Not only that, but instead of cuddling with only his arm, she cuddled with all of him.

She was still blunt sometimes, but not as blunt, and he found out that she hated chocolate and was a vegan and loved kids.

She noticed things as well. She leanred that he was afraid of thunder because they reminded him of what they did to him, and he could be extremly romantic. He was also a good teacher. She could dance just as well as him now. They were happy, even with all of the flaws. That's what made the relationship interesting.

They wouldn't have it any other way.


End file.
